The Best Laid Plans…

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed. Proverbs 15:22 (NIV)

For about a week now my daughter has reminded me that she needed a white leotard for her performance in a local theater production. She’d remind me, I’d forget, she’d remind me, I’d forget, and on and on our dance would go.

Finally, the other night she reminded me that she really needed this for her dress rehearsal the next day, and for the performances the following three days. Ok, I said, I would take her to the dance shop that evening after theater camp – she was going to need it for dance later in the year as well. So around 7:00 we finally ventured out to seek out a white leotard, and a huge white hair bow the size of her head.

“You mean a ribbon that goes around your head like a headband? Is that what you mean by the size of your head?” I asked.

“No, I mean a bow literally the size of my head.”

“You mean a bow, like Minnie Mouse wears, only white and larger?”

“Yes.”

Okayyy…

We arrived at our nearby mall where one of her dance teachers mentioned there was a dance shop. We circled. And circled. And circled. I knew I had never seen a dance shop in my six years of living near this mall, but I tried anyway because I had never really looked for one either! No dance shop. Ok, where to find a white leotard? That is not really a piece of clothing one can easily find in a department store, is it? I knew that our nearby Target focuses on tiny dancers, not almost-middle-school dancers.

I called a friend of mine, whom I was sure knew where the dance store was. The good news was- he did. The bad news was – I was nowhere near it. There was one about 45 minutes away and another one about 45 minutes away in the other direction, but it closed early. Little Miss Sunshine was now getting overly anxious and Princess was asking why we just didn’t go to Barnes and Noble if we didn’t know where to go? She was just about to talk me into it, too.. No, focus! White leotard!!

My friend gave me a few helpful hints on how to work around this dilemma, which involved pink leotards, scissors and bleach (well, I did just sign up for Pinterest. It would make an interesting DIY pin!). It just might work..

I got back in the car (I had stepped out to look around while I was chatting with my friend. Really. I don’t even know why. I literally kept scanning the five stores that have been in the same place in this exact spot for the last six years while chatting, waiting for a dance store to appear before my eyes as if I had parked in spot 9 3/4 and just had to grab the kids by the hands and walk straight through to glitter, glitz and glam). But I digress.

Photo courtesy of freefoto.com

I got back in the car and explained the whole DIY project, and Little Miss Sunshine said, “have you been talking about a white leotard this whole time?” “Yesss….” meaning this whole week. “No, I don’t need a white leotard,” she explained, “I need white tights.”

Tights.

1..2..3 I am repeating my mantra in my head. Wait, I don’t have a mantra. Need a mantra!

“White tights?” I verified.

“Yes”

“But we can just get those at Target.”

“Oh, great!”

I re-buckled Princess as chaos had ensued in the car during my 90-second chat (it’s really better not to detail chaos), and we were off to the other side of the parking lot towards Target. Then Little Miss Sunshine asked if we could stop at Payless to look at ballet shoes. Well, why not? This was a girls outing that has so far gone nowhere – of course, we must randomly stop to look at shoes!

We entered into Payless with the girls racing one another for the front door and stepped in. And there, on the accessory rack, was a white bow as big as Little Miss Sunshine’s head. Whoop! High five! Two seconds after I had just told them I was not buying shoes during a non-BOGO week (I have my Payless standards), I was telling her to grab both bows from the rack. And tights? Of course! Plain white or textured white? Two packages of tights were added to our purchase. And, confession, one pair of $7 sandals for me. (I deserve them, I swear!)

One more headband later and we were happily skipping out the door. I hadn’t even prayed about white accessories – God just took pity on me and led me randomly to Payless, the land of glitter, glitz and glam.

I would talk about Little Miss Sunshine’s first experience putting on tights after a lifetime of living in Florida, but that’s a story for another day…

Welcome! I'm Heather Paquette, and I'm a writer, editor, and project manager. I hope you enjoy perusing this site, which houses some of my personal and professional writing projects. I look forward to connecting with you so I can help you craft the messages that are important to your work, family, and life.